Double-Wide India Pale Ale

Brewer: Boulevard Brewing Company, Kansas City, Missouri
Alcohol Content: 8.5%

Official Description from Brewer:
"The classic India Pale Ale is a traveler's beer, aggressively hopped to withstand the long, hot ocean voyage to the British East Indies.  Our Double-Wide I.P.A. also travels well, and is right at home in the most exotic ports of call of the Midwest.  While this modern-day prairie schooner may not resemble a graceful sailing sloop, our liberal hopping regimen does make her virtually 'twister-proof,'  Keep some in the cellar to enjoy while waiting for the all clear to sound."

Wilk's Take:
I promised you IPA, so here is an IPA.  I'm a perpetual fan of the corked beer.  Boulevard lured me in with this 750 mL bottle and the special Smokestack Series moniker.  You have to forgive my hesitation with hop beers.  Even after the wonderful trip out west and my introduction to some wonderful bitterness, I still approach IPAs with trepidation.

Double-Wide poured miserably.  It could be the fresh uncorking, it could be that I was rushed to enjoy a beer.  I was patient.  Titled my glass at a 45 and then straightened out at the half-way point.  This must have been my critical error because as you can see from the picture above half the glass was head.  The other half of the glass in the picture does not offer a true depiction of the liquid below.  It was a cloudy, rusty liquid that one might expect to extract from a sponge after wiping down a brass bar.  Not appealing to the eyes at all.  The head after the pour never disappeared.  From first sip to last gulp there was a continuous layer of foam residing at the top of my beer.

Hops are fickle in their taste.  Without researching the IBUs on this brew, you can tell that it probably hovers above 50.  For the sake of writing this I'm not going to look for the IBUs either.  The worst mistake I made with this beer is to actually let it sit on my tongue for longer than a heartbeat.  If you let Double-Wide linger and your breath warms the liquid you are left with the foulest, sourest taste you can imagine.  To then swallow the drink is a mark of intestinal fortitude.  When I walked away from that method however, it was a good beer to drink.

I was trying very hard to label the aroma I discovered when inhaling Double-Wide deeply after the pour.  I came up with an odd mixture of grapefruit, as I do in all IPAs, and believe it or not, citronella.  My first glass of Double-Wide was awful.  As I took drink after drink I was reminded of awful summer nights as a kid when I sprayed so much insect repellent on myself that I could taste it well into the night.  I feared that I might do the unthinkable and actually pour out the rest of the beer.  I quickly came to my senses and poured another glass.  Glasses two and three (remember 750mL) were a much more enjoyable experience.  Maybe the beer had time to breathe.  Either way, the bottle conditioned beer left some sediment at the bottom of glass number three.  Not unbearable, but a little disconcerting.

Suggestion:  If you are a hop head, drink with pleasure.  I'm sure this beer is right up your alley.  If you haven't ventured far from your safety beer, start smaller than this one.

Value: At $8 for a 750mL bottle and a nice 8.5% alcohol content you'll get your money's worth.  If you don't like hoppy beer, don't spend the money.

Michelle Factor:  For the first time ever, Michelle actually went for a second serving!!!  Considering this is a dramatic difference from the beers I thrust upon her in the past I was expecting a distinct difference in taste for her.  She indicated that the after taste lingers in the nose and mouth and you continue to taste the beer in the back of your throat long after you've swallowed it.  The after taste sold it.  Her first swallow led to the infamous Keystone Light bitter beer face of marketing campaigns long ago, but after a while she said that the taste was almost sweet and that the lingering beer on her palate made her crave more.  Of course, knowing the effect of actually consuming the beer was bad, she passed on a full glass.